The tradition of alchemy dates back at least to
the middle of the first millennium B.C., and probably reaches as far back
as prehistoric times. It was, and is, a psychospiritual method whose
ultimate aim was the "Great Work," the refining of the base into the noble.

The evolution of the esoteric craft of alchemy
appears to be very similar to that of esoteric masonry. In ancient
times, skilled groups of artisans were a valuable and elite group of people.
Thus the skills involved in working with metals or crafting buildings from
stone were essentially "secrets," jealously guarded by their own respective
guild. Until the eighteenth century science, craftsmanship and religion
were not separated. As these craftsman saw analogies between their
craft and the human soul and/or cosmos, initiation into these guilds imparted
knowledge and wisdom of both the mundane and the divine. A similar
concept is expressed in Oriental philosophy as a Tao (do
in Japanese), or a Way of Living. There is the Way of Tea (chaido),
the Way of the Sword (kendo), etc. The idea is that
every vocation, every Way, is also a way of initiation into the mystery
of life.

Like
many other esoteric mouth-to-ear teachings, alchemy was generally protected
from the profane by secrecy. When it was committed to writing, it
was generally done out of fear of the information being lost. Even
when this was done, the manuscripts were usually incomplete or had intentional
"blinds" to fool the dabbler. This has led many historians to regard
alchemists as nothing more than primitive chemists who tried to change
lead into gold. Why then, would alchemy persist as a tradition for
thousands of years in such widely separated civilizations as those of the
Near East and Far East? At a time when many early chemical discoveries
were being made, and advanced techniques for the preparation of metals
and glass were being implemented, men continued to follow an apparently
irrational yet consistent tradition of alchemical processes. It would
be foolish, as well as a great insult to the nature of humanity, to state
that this tradition had only persisted because men repeatedly fell to the
temptation to get rich quickly by creating silver and gold from common
metals.

"If alchemy were nothing but a sham, its form
of expression would betray arbitrariness and folly at every turn; but in
fact it can be seen to possess all the signs of a genuine 'tradition,'
that is to say, an organic and consistent... doctrine, and a clear-cut
corpus of rules."1

The transmutation of lead into silver or gold does not appear to be
possible by ordinary metallurgical processes. In theory, such a change
could be possible by manipulation on a molecular or sub-molecular level,
possibly through such magickal techniques as vibratory formulae or mantra.
However, despite what is theoretically possible, and what a few alchemists
such as Nicolas Flamel (1330-1417) seem to claim to have successfully performed,
the vast body of alchemical wisdom points to a refining process of the
human soul.

At the heart of this wisdom is the analogy to metal-working. The
craftsman is identified with the metal to be worked upon. It is said
in alchemy that it is the ultimate goal of every metal to be gold.
Gold is a manifestation of the essence of the Sun. Lead, the manifestation
of the essence of the planet Saturn, is considered to be the starting point
of the Work for most men. In order to transmute lead, or any other
base metal, into the noble metals of silver and gold, the alchemist must
use the formula of solve et coagula, dissolution and coagulation.

In alchemical symbolism, all metals are considered to be composed of
three basic elements; sulphur, salt and quicksilver (mercury). These
three elements are often related to the three fundamental tendencies (gunas)
in the Hindu system (tamas, sattva, and rajas).
Sulphur (spirit) is the active or male principle, Quicksilver (soul) is
the receptive or female principle, and Salt (body) is the neutral, static
element.

The metal is
dissolved into these basic elements (solve) in an oven called an
Athanor, from the Arabic at-tannûr ("oven"). Sulphur
and Quicksilver are, in a certain sense, opposed to one another, but they
also long for union. Because of their opposition, they are often
depicted in alchemical works as various beasts, often serpents, in combat
with one another. It is through this combat and mutual destruction
that they recombine in the "chemical marriage" (coagula), and having
fought or burned off impurities, a "nobler" metal is created. This
process must be repeated several times in order to transmute "lead" into
"gold."

When one meditates upon the "chemical marriage," it should be no surprise
that Indian alchemists consider it to be a Tantric art. The method
of increasing tension and attraction between male and female (Sulphur and
Quicksilver) before union, and spiritual revaluation, as described in the
foregoing paragraph is a common Tantric practice. In the practice
of laya-yoga, meant to arouse the Kundalini, Sulphur and
Quicksilver are the Pingalâ and Idâ currents
which wind themselves around the Merudanda, creating the familiar
shape of the caduceus of Hermes.

In recent years, with the revival of magick and breakthroughs in the
field of psychology, alchemy has gained much renewed interest. Dr.
Carl G. Jung, the prominent psychologist and pioneer in the realm of the
subconscious mind, viewed alchemy as an archaic form of psychotherapy,
which assisted the craftsman in what he called the "individuation" process,
the uniting of conscious and subconscious mind. It should be understood,
however, that alchemy, like all forms of occult science, are not "merely"
psychological. They deal with not only the conscious and subconscious,
but the superconscious or Divine as well.

1 Titus Burckhardt, Alchemy.
Penguin Books, Maryland, 1971.

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